Il Trittico by Giacomo Puccini: Three One-Act Operas
The operatic genre of Verismo (end of the 19th century) is characterized by one-act operas, among which probably the most famous are Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana (1890) and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (1892). Giacomo Puccini was no stranger to composing one-act operas. At the beginning of his career, after his years at the Milan Conservatory, he […]
Cav & Pag – a journey into Verismo
Pagliacci is an Italian opera with music and libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo. Together with Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni, it creates an inseparable duo affectionately known as Cav & Pag. Cavalleria rusticana, premiered in 1890, is the older of the two operas, predating Pagliacci by about two years. Even though these two operas weren’t originally […]
Gaetano Donizetti and the horror side of opera
A woman dressed in black appears showing five coffins for her poisoned victims. She is Lucrezia Borgia featured in Donizetti’s opera in a scene worthy of a horror film. It is not surprising that opera knows how to represent death in its most heartbreaking guise. Death intertwined with episodes of macabre madness and delirium. The […]
Giuseppe Mazzini and opera
“Music is the fragrance of the universe.” An intense and passionate phrase that does not belong to a musician, as one might think. The author is instead a man better known as a politician, journalist, and activist for the unification of Italy and founder of the secret revolutionary society Young Italy. In his 1836 essay […]
Turandot at the Rome Opera House
Turandot is an opera in 3 acts and 5 scenes, set to a libretto by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni, left unfinished by Giacomo Puccini, and posthumously completed by Franco Alfano.
Fryderyk Chopin: the poet of the piano
Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin was a Polish composer and pianist. He was one of the great masters of Romantic music, sometimes called “the poet of the piano” whose poetic genius is based on a professional technique that is unmatched in his generation.
Farewell to Mirella Freni, exceptional soprano and friend of Big Luciano
The soprano Mirella Freni, who died recently due to a long illness, would have turned 85 on February 27, 2020.
Vittorio Grigolo, the prince of tenors
Vittorio Grigolo is an Italian operatic tenor. He was born in Arezzo on February 19, 1977 and raised in Rome where he studied singing at Schola Puerorum cantorum of the Sistine Chaple. Son of an opera lover, Vittorio began singing by the age of four. One day, while he was in a waiting room, he was […]
The fundamentals of the Opera
Opera is the Italian term of international use for a theatrical and musical genre in which the scenic action is combined with music, ballet and singing. The name “opera” is the conventional abbreviation of the noun phrase opera in musica.
Five operas recommended for novices
We report this article from the website www.cinquecosebelle.it. In this article, the author asserts that opera is a genre that can prove to be somewhat complex and severe. Precisely for this reason, not all operas are suitable for starting to take an interest in opera. Of course, there may be love at first sight even […]
